I've had a lot of mentors in my career many of them were paid a few of them were free the point of a good teacher is that the student does pass the teacher I see this thing that happens all the time when you're a kid and you learn arithmetic first you learn your numbers and then you learn how to add you level up and you learn how to multiply and then you level up from there and you learn algebra when you get to algebra you don't think man my arithmetic teacher is a idiot I can't
believe they didn't teach me this stuff it's like dude you weren't ready and you had to have the arithmetic in order to get to the multiplication it's not that that teacher was an idiot it's that that was the sequence and so when you have a first teacher that teaches you the basics and you have a more advanced teacher later it doesn't mean you should on your first teacher it's like that person got you ready to receive the next thing earlier on my career I definitely did the other way this guy didn't know anything this guy
is the guy rather than seeing it like you would see any other thing that you'd have in school I've had the opportunity in the you know the gift of being able to Mentor whatever you want to say you know provide advice counsel share my experiences a lot of people hold me in a regard and most people who are winners are competitive it's just like who you are right you want to win you to beat everybody because that's that's part of the competitive drive but I think there's like a there's a comma there that needs to
get put in which is that you have to accept two things one is that you are going to die and no one is going to remember like real real ten thousand years from now no one's going to remember at all number two is that when you're at the end of your life the people who are going to be your buyer vets are not the people who you Vanquish but the people that you helped I know that I have passed a lot of the mentors that I've had in my career in terms of financials Etc earlier
on used to think that made me better than them as I've had a couple more years and some more more scars I've realized something different which is that I was only able to get better than them because they gave me the Head Start step on my shoulder you can reach that next Branch I think I experience a lot of Joy knowing that other people don't have to suffer as much you know we're walking around outside yesterday and someone's like dude I did everything you have and we're doing four million dollars a year now like he
was like emotional just knowing that it's happening it makes stomaching the hard times easier it feels like it's not just me trying to do this for myself it's me trying to do this for a lot of people if I'm failing over and over again at this thing I know that once I figured out I'll be able to help 100 people cheat code their way through it and not spend five months figuring something out or two years figuring something out like I was stuck at Mid 30 million for three years to everyone watching they're like boo
hoo that's not the point is that there's another guy who's going to get to that point and he's going to move right past it like in a blink of an eye because I've had the right advice that I didn't have and I think that if the mentees and the mentors both see it that way then the mentees will stop on the mentors that help them and the mentors will stop trying to hold back secrets that have propelled them further because the point is not that you're going to beat everyone you're going to get really old
and then you're gonna die as you're getting older they're going to be people who are younger who had a head start and as long as the next guy honors the fact that that guy died on the battlefield to give him these lessons and come back and they have to recognize that they're going to die on the battlefield too for the Next Generation to pass them they have it easier than us that's the point of progress and so rather than lamenting that the Next Generation has it easier I thought that what we all say I want
to make the world a better place well that's what making the world a better place looks like we say that this is our mission with our business we want to make the world a better place we want to make an impact and then when it actually happens we resent the kids for the fact that they didn't have it as hard as us that was the point my point is not to beat the progeny a point is to forge as far as I can look back and be like hey watch out for that hole watch out
for that rock keep going keep going because they move through the path that we tread three times faster than we did because we already cleared all the trees they get to the next non-clearing and they have to start hacking away and hacking away and hacking away to forge the next PATH and then they become the mentors turn around and the Next Generation moves six times as fast to cover my distance and their distance if you look at some of the greatest success stories a lot of them talk about their mentors Warren Buffett had his mentor
early on the quick story on that was that he said I'll work for you for free and Paul Graham told him you're overpriced he was the one who's going to be giving far more to this relationship even if Warren gave him his time he still was going to to be on the losing side but he still did it anyways because he recognized that Warren had a gift Warren passed him in his career you'll notice that Warren isn't like man I'm so much better than Paul Graham I passed that dude in my like 40s he doesn't
talk like that we really do stand on the shoulders of the Giants when I think about like the gratitude that I have for the garyvee's who is 12 years older than I am he's forged so much of this path that like I didn't have to think about how am I going to create this whole thing it's like he already had a blueprint and I could just start laying that out immediately execute there are guys who we have in our portfolio right now who are in their 20s who are making twice when I was making at
30 but if they came to me below and then now they're above that was the point garyvee didn't have Gary Vee to Mentor him on his career I do right now we all do many of us will pass Gary and I don't think Gary mines there's a 20 year old it might be you who's watching this and you've got me that's the point I'm still going to be hustling trying to beat you don't get me wrong when I see guys who are in their 60s I'm like man by the time I'm 60 I'm gonna be
10 times as wealthy as that 10 times the the real estate 10 times yeah but if they had had themselves as mentors they would too if your mentees and the students that you have and the people that you help and the people that you teach don't move above you it means that you're a bad teacher not a good one the new definition of success of a teacher is that the students surpass the teacher and then get to the point where they're both looking together with his experience and his Raw Talent looking at the new landscape
saying all right what do you think we should do if this video changed your mind about some of the talking that you've done to a teacher or to a mentor who is earlier on in your career shoot that guy a text and be like hey like respect I appreciate you I can't tell you one how much it means to the mentor when they get that text and I also think too it'll help you spit out the poison that you had that wasn't real it was only made up in your head I think if you can
do those things this video would have been a success
